‘The Walking Dead’ recap: Morgan’s journey from killer to pacifist revealed

The sometimes tragic back story of how Morgan Jones (Lennie James) acquired his stick-fighting skills and pacifist philosophy is revealed in “He’s Not Here,” Episode 604 of AMC’s “The Walking Dead.”

As the episode begins, Morgan is a merciless killing machine driven mad by the loss of his wife and daughter in the zombie apocalypse. Encountering a father and son in the woods, Morgan viciously stabs one in the throat and strangles the other with his bare hands.

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Soon Morgan is drawn to a cabin by the bleating of a goat. When he spots the animal’s Zen-like owner, aptly named Eastman (John Carroll Lynch), Morgan immediately opens fire with an assault rifle.

“Why don’t you put the gun down and we’ll talk,” Eastman calmly suggests. Reasoning isn’t effective, so Eastman sneaks up behind Morgan and bops him on the head.

“Kill me,” Morgan yells after regaining consciousness in a jail cell Eastman constructed. But rather than slay Morgan, Eastman shares food and some pertinent reading material: “The Art of Peace.”

Eastman also shares that he served pre-apocalypse as a forensic psychiatrist for the state of Georgia and evaluated prisoners to determine if they were fit to rejoin society. And what does Morgan do?

“I clear,” Morgan defiantly says. “Walkers, people, anything that gets anywhere near me. I kill ‘em!” That’s how he survives, Morgan claims.

Eastman has a better explanation. He believes Morgan developed post-traumatic stress disorder after watching flesh-eating zombies slaughter his family.

“You loved them a lot if you’re like this,” Eastman surmises. “You saw it happen. That’s how this started, right?”

Eastman explains that humans are “not built to kill.” In fact, of the more than 800 prisoners Eastman interviewed, he met only one evil person. The rest were “damaged people” who retained the capacity to heal.

“Go, clear or stay,” Eastman announces in letting Morgan know his cell is unlocked. “The door’s open. It’s been open all along.”

Rather than thank Eastman for his hospitality, Morgan attacks. That’s when Eastman demonstrates his mastery of aikido, with its focus on redirecting an opponent’s energy.

Intrigued by this Japanese martial art, Morgan begins reading the book about peace and gradually starts to share Eastman’s conviction that all life is precious.

Morgan also develops expert stick-handling techniques under Eastman’s tutelage, along with a far calmer demeanor. His newfound skills are put to the test when a zombie appears.

“It’s all yours,” Eastman says. Morgan freezes, however, because the “walker” is that young man he strangled many days ago. Eastman steps in to save Morgan but sustains a fatal bite in the process.

Shortly before dying, Eastman confesses that he originally built the cell that Morgan woke up in to house a psychopathic prisoner who had escaped for the sole purpose of murdering Eastman’s family.

Eastman managed to recapture the man, and as an act of revenge locked him in the cell and watched him starve to death over 47 days.

“What I did to him, it didn’t give me any peace,” Eastman admits. “I found that peace when I decided never to kill again. To never kill anything again.”

Soon the episode shifts to the present day as Morgan relates his story to a scavenger Wolf (Benedict Samuel), who’s bound and bleeding after invading the Alexandria Safe-Zone. Morgan’s tale of compassion falls on deaf ears, however.

The Wolf will probably die in captivity, he predicts. But if he escapes, he vows to kill Morgan.

“I am going to have to kill every person here, every one of them,” the Wolf warns. “The children, too.” Why pursue this terrible life of violence?

“Those are the rules,” the Wolf coldly insists.